UCOL News

2007 MENTORING SYMPOSIUM: Connecting Mentoring Statewide

BY JESSICA BLACKERBY AND LINDSEY JENDRASZAK

The fifth annual IUPUI Mentoring Symposium was held this past fall on Saturday, September 29. The Mentoring Symposium has been jointly organized by the Bepko Learning Center and Orientation Services for the past five years and continues to grow every year. This year was the biggest symposium ever as we expanded to include mentors not only from every mentoring component in University College, but also mentors from other areas at IUPUI and other schools such as Purdue Calumet.

Another exciting addition to this year’s symposium was the presence of two nationally recognized motivational speakers. Maura Cullen, who delivered a moving and thought-provoking talk on diversity, is considered a foremost authority on issues of diversity and leadership on college campuses today. The second featured speaker, Paul Wesselmann, gave the mentors a motivational talk about taking care of others while remembering to take time for themselves. In addition to around 100 presentations each year, Wesselmann also sends out a weekly inspirational e-mail to over 15,000 members of The Ripples Project.

In addition to having featured guest speakers, the symposium offers our mentors a chance to visit  sessions that are intended to assist in their personal and professional development.  Opportunities to attend these workshops and sessions have grown very rapidly since the inception of the symposium in 2003. For example, at the 2004 Mentoring Symposium, there were only eight concurrent sessions offered. At the 2007 Mentoring Symposium, there were 21 concurrent sessions from which attendees could choose. The symposium is also unique in that student mentors from all across the campus have a chance to present their knowledge and research with other mentors. The number of these student-led sessions is also growing rapidly. A few descriptions of mentor-facilitated concurrent sessions offered in 2007 include:

Learning Styles and Study Skills

(Georgia Waddups and Dustin Blackwell)

Explore the importance and implementation of learning styles and study skills through collaborative and active learning. In this session you will experience and learn to facilitate different learning styles. Key study skills will also be explored in order to actively understand and address diverse student study needs.

Assertiveness Training

(Greg Roberts and Katherine Figueroa)

Are you tired of being a pushover? Do you intimidate others and make them feel like they can’t be honest with you? Don’t you wish there was something in between being a pushover and being aggressive? There is! Come learn about assertiveness and how it is the most effective way of communicating and getting things done!

Returning Mentor Panel

(Chris Hardin, Nick Stepp, Stephanie So, and Casey Thompson)

Returning mentors from all mentoring components at IUPUI discuss what to expect as a new mentor, as well as emphasize techniques, experiences, and problems they have encountered.

In the 2007 Mentoring Symposium, University College invited several colleges in the Indiana University and Purdue University systems, in addition to other schools from across the state. At the 2008 Mentoring Symposium, University College wants not only to invite more outside schools to attend, but also invite proposals from other schools for concurrent sessions. Behind the hope for increasing the size of the symposium is hard work by mentors to make this happen. Expect to see the 2008 Mentoring Symposium bigger and better than ever.

For more information on Mentoring at IUPUI, download the IUPUI Mentoring Bulletin